IPL 10: SWOT Analysis of Rising Pune Supergiant

The tenth edition of Indian Premier League is about to embark in a few hours time e with Royal Challengers Bangalore facing the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.  Rising Pune Supergiant, alike other teams in the competition would be ready to start their season. After a disappointing performance last year, the franchise would be keen to turn around their fortunes this year.

The team that started their journey last year as one of the powerhouses in all the facets of the game, wilted in later stages of the tournament largely due to injuries to their star players. This year, though, they looked determined to perform well which was also visible during the auctions which were held in February.  That said, Let us have a look at the detailed analysis of Rising Pune Supergiant team, which will be led by Steve Smith this season.

Rising Pune Supergiant Squad:

Steven Smith (C), MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Faf Du Plessis, Usman Khawaja, Daniel Christian, Adam Zampa, Lockie Ferguson, Rajat Bhatia, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Jaydev Unadkat, Milind Tandon, Saurabh Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Mishra, Jaskaran Singh, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir

Strengths:

The trio of Captains:

The newly appointed skipper Steven Smith by the RPS (Rising Pune Supergiant) franchise is a major and positive step taken by them in quest of winning the coveted trophy this year. Steve Smith’s aggressive captaincy along with his superlative batting would come to the fore for the team this season.

MS Dhoni’s presence in the side is a huge plus point for Smith as he would seek Dhoni’s input at crucial stages of the match. Cricketing world has already witnessed the effects of Virat growing as a captain under the calm presence of the wicket-keeper batsman.

Another International captain Faf Du Plessis will play under Smith, which in a way is a blessing in disguise for the franchise. Du Plessis who has led his nation to perfection up till now would be looking forward to this tournament which will surely help the South African skipper during the course of the matches.

This exciting blend of leadership would surely keep the Supergiant in good stead in difficult and tricky situations. While Smith will infuse the aggression in his team with his leadership skills, MS Dhoni would bring his calmness into play in tough conditions and Du Plessis a mixture of both, would help them whenever required.

Top Order Batsmen:

Rising Pune Supergiant boasts one of the best top order playing in World cricket today. They had the similar batting line-up last season as well but things didn’t go to plan as several players were injured.

Amidst injuries to other players, Ajinkya Rahane was the consistent performer for Pune last season. Opening the innings, he scored 480 runs at an amazing average of around 44 and a decent strike rate of 127. Rahane will look to do the same this year and guide his team through the innings by holding one end up.

Skipper Steve Smith, who will most probably bat at No.3, is another dangerous batsman. His unorthodox style of batting and his shuffling across the wickets has perplexed the opposition bowlers. Smith would be keen to transform his sizzling form from International cricket to this high-profile T20 tournament as well.

Faf Du Plessis is a perfect foil for this star studded batting line up. Faf has all the qualities in his batting which mean he can consolidate when wickets fall early and can carry the momentum forward to seal the game for his side. Faf who had an ordinary season by his standards last year would like to return with a bang in 2017.

Pune franchise has got the perfect finishers in T20 format in Ben Stokes and MS Dhoni. Dhoni has come into his own since stepping down from captaincy in India colours. He has been playing in the domestic tournaments as well to stay in touch. Being relieved from captaincy in IPL as well Dhoni could unleash his old version and if that happens, Pune will not be far away from that glory moment. Ben Stokes also will have a point to justify his mighty price tag of 14.5 crores. He is a productive all-rounder and could go on to play the decisive role if Pune is to win the trophy.

Weaknesses:

Every team in IPL is with holes and Rising Pune Supergiant is no strangers to that fact. The team which has the best batting line-up in the tournament perhaps possesses somewhat weak bowling line up.

Pune does have bowlers like R Ashwin, Ben Stokes and Adam Zampa, but the weakness lies beyond them. They don’t seem to have covered all the bases when it comes to the bowling department. Jaydev Unadkat, Shardul Thakur, Daniel Christian, Imran Tahir are some of the exciting prospects they have picked but they lack a proper death bowler.

Other teams have specialist death bowlers like Lasith Malinga, Tymal Mills, Mustafizur Rahman. Unadkat and Christian are capable of bowling off-cutters and yorkers but can they execute those under immense pressure? Also, there is a question over the number of opportunities Christian and Tahir would get given that only four overseas players can be included in the playing eleven.

Opportunities:

There was a huge controversy when MS Dhoni was sacked from captaincy and Smith was recruited by the Pune franchise as his successor. The harsh reactions were expected as the talisman is the most successful captain in IPL history and has been at the helm before.

Smith would love to take a leaf out of Dhoni’s book and learn some leadership skills over the course of the tournament. He also has the opportunity to lead his side from the front and take the Supergiants to the top and prove everyone that he is no less than the captain cool.

Pune will have to rely on the young Indian contingent as far as fast and medium pace bowlers are concerned. Jaydev Unadkat, Jaskaran Singh, Shardul Thakur, Rajat Bhatia are the ones who will look to support the other more established. Though other teams would look at them as a weakness, these players have a great opportunity to perform exceptionally and break into the national side.

Threats:

While the Rising Pune Supergiant look a very good side with most of the bases covered, the backup options for them if any of their key players get injured look bleak. There will be a situation mid-tournament when players might get injured or they may have to leave the IPL for national duty.

Batsmen like Deepak Chahar, Usman Khawaja, Baba Aparajith might have to fill in big shoes in case any of the top order batsmen is unavailable or is out of form. They also don’t have a potential replacement for Ben Stokes who is set to leave IPL on May 14. Even they don’t seem to have an experienced player to replace R Ashwin in case he opts out of few matches as he has been part of the long home season for India.

All in all, it looks like Pune franchise would need some luck to go their way to keep their core and key players fit throughout the tournament.

Starting XI for RPS looks well settled and it will be interesting to see how they perform this season after their debacle last year.